


Nominally Ninja

by Skeren



Series: Works of Reference for Sharing [2]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Conflicting Ideas, Gen, Headcanon, Holidays, Sorta Canon, making sense of a huge canon, personal timeline, shamelessly unrepentant making shit up
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-12
Updated: 2019-08-08
Packaged: 2019-10-24 16:01:44
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,018
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17707331
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skeren/pseuds/Skeren
Summary: You ever just want to look at a timeline for Naruto and go 'yeah that'll work' for the time periodbeforethe series starts?How about just wanting to share oddball ideas you've had that in no way would ever go into a serious story without writing the story theywouldgo in?Or maybe you're just lazy and want to have something to work from? Well, that's this, right here. Naruto-verse as done by me, mix and match to your heart's content!





	1. And First, a Timeline

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so I've got headcanons for things scattered all over the internet for this fandom and I felt it was about time I sorted things out and consolidated. Especially considering I've been picking up _ever more_ muses for Naruto and with them has come me figuring out gaps in the timeline. For instance, where exactly the wars Konoha was involved in fall as indicated by birth rates, as just one example.
> 
> On the other hand, there will be weird and horrifying headcanons and I'll do my best to note them as they come up so people can skip them. Some of these chapters will be hilariously cracktastical ridiculousness that I almost never use in anything. Other chapters will be thought out and serious considerations I've taken years to chisel out into something viable. It won't always be clear which is which.
> 
> The only things that this will have in common from chapter to chapter are that I don't mind if other people use any of these ideas and that they're all concepts I want to share about my take on the Naruto universe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This timeline isn't strictly canon, as I honestly doubt any are, but this is the timeline I use _most often_ and that I base all my timeline changes off of when I go off into AU territory (and often when I don't). I'm also going to point out here that I use an odd mishmash of anime, manga, and the ninja storm games (with a liberal sprinkling of the Naruto fandom guides, formerly known as the wiki) as my sources, so if you're a book aficionado this probably won't go _quite_ in the direction you were expecting.
> 
> Also, before anyone asks, I'm fully aware Kaguya was pregnant for years. That was deliberate given the information we get about her and the fact that she is not, in fact, human.
> 
> Also, on that note, I'm aware my interpretation of Asura is very... prolific. No regrets.
> 
> Remember! Even if you use my timeline you don't have to use _all_ of my timeline. Besides, it's entirely possible I'll edit either the formatting or add things as the opportunity presents itself.

Before Kaguya came to the world. Unclear number of years.
     **August 15th:** Otsutsuki Kaguya Born 
Year 1
     **April:** Comes to the world in search of the tree.  
**November:** Kaguya convinces Emperor Tenji she's his concubine. 
Year 2
     **November:** Kaguya falls pregnant. 
Year 3
     **April:** Kaguya loses faith in humans and eats the fruit of the god tree. She's hailed as the Rabbit Goddess as she stops wars all on her lonesome.  
Kaguya over the next years puts the world under genjutsu, only to change her mind and free some people, conditionally, when she decides she wants some humans around. 
Year 8
     **August 6th:** Hagoromo and his younger twin Hamura are born to Kaguya with chakra. Kaguya isn't sure she likes it. 
Year 30
     **June:** Hamura marries his human wife but doesn't tell his clan. His wife has green eyes and black hair. 
Year 31
     **November:** Hamura's oldest daughter is born, she has green eyes, white hair, and can use her grandmother's bone manifestations. 
Year 32
     **April:** Hagoromo meets a girl he absolutely adores. 
Year 33
     **August:** Hamura has a second daughter, this one with his Byakugan and her mother's hair and skin. 
Year 34
     **May:** Hagoromo intends to propose to his sweetheart only to find out that she's being used in his mother's ritual. When they confront her she dismisses them.  
**July:** After some investigation, Hagoromo ends up awakening his Sharingan in grief and the brothers turn their attention to getting stronger to deal with the new problem their mother presented. 
Year 35
     **May 14th:** Kaguya creates black Zetsu using her will and part of the god-tree's chakra. 
Year 36
     **August:** Hagoromo manages to complete sage training.  
**October:** Kaguya catches wind of what her children are doing and snares Hamura under her control, sending him chasing after his brother when he comes to confront her. This leads to Hagoromo leveling his eyes all the way to the Rinnegan when he has to hurt his brother to make him stop, then he heals him so they can stand together.  
**November:** Kaguya, furious she's not getting her way, sends the ten tails after her sons to take their chakra back. It starts a fight that lasts months. 
Year 37
     **June:** Hagoromo and Hamura manage to seal their mother away and put the ten-tails chakra in Hagoromo. After some discussion, the ten-tails body is sent with Hamura off to the moon where he can watch their mother. Hagoromo promises to keep an eye on his brother's family when he returns to the moon with the rest of the Otsutsuki clan. Hagoromo stays to teach in repentance for the destruction his family caused. 
Year 40
     **October:** Hagoromo finally returns to his home village so that further students can come find him. He meets his future wife. 
Year 41
     **March:** Hagoromo marries his wife. 
Year 42
     **January 4th:** Indra Otsutsuki born. 
Year 44
     **June 8th:** Asura Otsutsuki born. His mother dies days later. 
Year 49
     **November:** Hamura's elder daughter has a baby girl and declares she has no father, naming her family as Kaguya after her grandmother, much to Hagoromo's bewilderment. She takes both her younger sister and her child and leaves her uncle's lands. 
Year 53
     **June:** Worried about her sister, Hamura's younger daughter has her own child, also a girl, who she names Hyuuga in hopes that her line will temper that of her sister's like she herself kept her sister grounded and clearheaded. 
Year 55
     **April:** Indra sent off on his first tasks alone and finds he has a taste for solitude in the process. During this same timeframe, Asura starts making his first friends outside of his brother. 
Year 60
     **January:** Both brothers start to regularly get given tasks. 
Year 62
     **March:** Asura spends months helping a town rebuild their situation and dealing with a potential God-tree issue. Indra, given a similar task, takes the more expedient method to the same result. 
Year 63
     **October:** The brothers are informed that Asura will be the one to inherit from their father. Indra is bitter and backs off, turning to other methods to compensate. Many are self-destructive. 
Year 64
     **January:** Asura marries his first wife.  
**December 3rd:** Otsutsuki Naoko is born, Asura's eldest and a _very_ loud little girl who lives up to her flame red hair. She adores her uncle. 
Year 67
     **July 14th:** Otsutsuki Akio is born, Asura's oldest boy. 
Year 68
     **May:** Indra finds a group of solid followers to his way and finally picks out a wife that suits him, and the distance between himself and his brother grows wider. 
Year 70
     **June:** Both of Hamura's daughters and their children settle in water.
Year 71
     **January 10th:** Otsutsuki Moriko, Asura's second daughter is born. His first wife can no longer have children and her health never fully recovers after this in spite of Asura's efforts.
Year 75
     **May:** The brothers have their first real fight, to Asura's absolute bewilderment. They don't really see each other much after that.
Year 79
     **September:** Asura meets his second wife. His first wife welcomes the help with her youngest.
Year 80
     **November 8th:** Otsutsuki Riko is born to Asura's second wife as her oldest daughter.
Year 87
     **May 15th:** Haruto Otsutsuki born to Asura's second wife as her first son.
Year 89
     **November 21st:** Otsutsuki Hoshiko, Indra's eldest child, is born. He keeps the news to himself. 
Year 90
     **February:** Hagoromo falls ill and doesn't seem to get better in spite of his celestial heritage. 
Year 91
     **August:** Naoko takes the name Uzumaki from her wife and proceeds to make space away from the family drama as her and her wife figure out how to use seals to have children.
Year 95
     **December 30th:** Otsutsuki Junko born. The boy is the last child of Asura's second wife and ends up having his father's affinity for plants.
Year 96
     **March:** Hagoromo creates the nine Bijuu, with Kurama the oldest and Shukaku the youngest, and puts them in his younger son's care before dying. 
Year 97
     **January:** Asura meets his first husband and immediately introduces him to his wives, the older of whom passes away weeks later. 
Year 98
     **May:** Asura finally hears from Indra again for the first time in years. It doesn't go well. 
Year 100
     **August:** Asura meets his third wife and marries her to save her from a bad situation. 
Year 101
     **June 22nd:** Otsutsuki Chihiro is born and is the most brilliant of all Asura's children. She develops an affinity for shadows when she's older.
Year 103
     **January 18th:** Otsutsuki Mao is born. She learns the great fun that is setting things on fire before age four, and by age fifteen has figured out how to make lava.
Year 104
     **February 11th:** Otsutsuki Ao is born. The boy is utterly obsessed with dogs and by age five is affectionately nicknamed Inuzuka.
Year 106
     **May 4th:** Otsutsuki Kuzuo is born and is the last of Asura's third wife's children. 
Year 109
     **October:** Asura meets his second husband and fourth wife in the wake of his second wife's death. They're a pair of incredibly close twins.
Year 112
     **June 27th:** Otsutsuki Makoto and Tomoko are born, twins, a boy and a girl, to Asura's fourth wife. 
Year 117
     **April 2nd:** Otsutsuki Etsuko and Rikuto are born, another set of twins, this time a girl and Asura's youngest boy. Both have their mother's blue eyes. 
Year 123
     **November:** There is a particularly vicious winter that sets off a plague. None of Asura's spouses survive, and unfortunately, he loses all the children still living in the village but Rikuto. Ao and Mao return as soon as news reaches them, but they're only in time to try and help their father through his grief over their lost family members. His older children are, unfortunately, too tied up in other parts of the continent to help. In the wake of the disaster, Asura ends up taking in six orphan children for his own.
Year 127
     **August:** Completely by accident Asura meets the woman who will become his fifth wife. They do not marry immediately.
Year 130
     **June 4th:** Otsutsuki Kumiko born to Asura's fifth wife. She has her mother's black hair and green eyes.
Year 134
     **May 16th:** Otsutsuki Yukiko is born and is a complete hellion. The girl loves winter. 
Year 139
     **October 5th:** Otsutsuki Akiko, Asura's last blood child and a daughter, is born.
Year 160
     **August:** Asura meets his last wife.
Year 191
     **November:** Asura dies.
Year 197
     **June:** Indra dies. 
Year 200
    Zetsu gets in the middle of everything and ends up _really_ kicking off the starts of the Warring States era. Junko and Hoshiko's families end up as the Senju and Uchiha respectively in the years that follow. Neither is happy about how their father was treated by their uncle and that passes on to their children and grandchildren.

* * *

Year 357
    A young Hyuuga is accidentally killed by her Kaguya cousin in a fit of jealousy and the unity of the two sister clans falls apart. This leads to the Hyuuga creating the first version of their Caged Bird Seal for the entire clan and the Hyuuga fleeing to Fire away from their now island-bound cousins.

* * *

Year 894
     **January 20th:** Byakuren is born.
Year 899
     **March 28th:** Uchiha Tajima is born.  
**June 27th:** Reto is born.
Year 906
     **January 16th:** Senju Butsuma is born.
Year 914
     **January 20th:** Uchiha Haruka is born.
Year 918
     **May 6th:** Ishikawa is born.  
**August 25th:** Uchiha Tsubasa is born.
Year 920
     **April 12th:** Uchiha Akira is born.
Year 922
     **August 15th:** Kakuzu is born.
Year 923
     **December 24th:** Uchiha Madara is born.
Year 924
     **April:** Haruka dies while out hunting.  
**October 23rd:** Senju Hashirama is born
Year 925
     **May 3rd:** Uzumaki Mito is born.
Year 926
     **February 10th:** Uchiha Izuna is born.  
**February 19th:** Senju Tobirama is born.  
**March 1st:** A (the second) is born.
Year 927
     **March 12th:** Shamon is born.
Year 928
     **March 22nd:** Kawarama Senju is born.  
**December 1st:** A (the first) is born.
Year 929
     **January 15th:** Senju Itama is born.  
**June:** Akira and Tsubasa killed by a Senju hunting party.
Year 932
     **June 6th:** Muu is born.
Year 934
     **October 8th:** Onoki is born.
Year 936
     **January:** Kawarama killed in battle.  
**August:** Itama killed by an Uchiha war party.
Year 941
     **May:** Uchiha Tajima dies.  
**June 4th:** Senju Misake, daughter of Hashirama and Mito, is born.  
**August 1st:** A (the third) is born.
Year 942
     **January 6th:** Shimura Danzo is born.  
**February 8th:** Sarutobi Hiruzen is born.  
**May 8th:** Mitokado Homura is born.  
**August 15th:** Uchiha Kagami is born.  
**September 1st:** Utatane Koharu is born.  
**November 28th:** Akimichi Torifu is born.
Year 943
     **December:** Senju Butsuma falls in battle while handling a mission away from the clan.
Year 944
     **January 17th:** Izuna's daughter Chiharu is born to Natsuki.
Year 945
     **May 4th:** Izuna's son is born.  
**July:** Izuna Uchiha dies in a conflict with the Senju.
Year 946
     **June 3rd:** Uchiha Yukito is born to Tomoyo. She doesn't tell Madara.  
**August 14th:** Hashirama and Mito's son Totoi is born.
Year 947
     **January:** Madara pressured into giving up by his clan.  
**March:** Konohagakure is founded.  
**June:** Hashirama chosen as Hokage.  
**September:** Sunagakure is founded.  
**October:** Reto apointed first Kazekage.
Year 948
     **February:** Kirigakure is founded. Byakuren immediate takes up Mizukage duties.  
**May:** Iwagakure is founded. Ishikawa steps up as Tsuchikage.  
**August:** Kumogakure is founded. A takes up being the first Raikage.
Year 951
     **March:** Madara leaves Konoha.
Year 953
     **April:** Valley of the End: Uchiha Madara battles Senju Hashirama and Kurama is sealed within Uzumaki Mito.  
**August:** Kakuzu tries and fails to kill Hashirama.
Year 954
     **May:** First Shinobi War Begins.  
**November:** Hashirama starts the hunt to collect and distribute the Bijuu to other villages.  
**December 4th:** Kato Dan is born.  
**December:** First Kage Summit.
Year 957
     **June:** Reto is assassinated. Shamon becomes the second Kazekage.
Year 958
     **September 3rd:** Hatake Sakumo is born.
Year 959
     **August:** A dies. A becomes second Raikage.
Year 960
     **August 2nd:** Senju Tsunade is born.  
**October 27th:** Orochimaru is born.  
**November 11th:** Jiraiya is born.
Year 963
     **March:** Hashirama dies or vanishes. His exact fate is never entirely clear. Some say he turned into a tree upon taking a nap.
Year 964
     **April:** A is ambushed with Tobirama at a peace talk by the gold and silver brothers. He doesn't escape while Tobirama does.  
**May:** A becomes third Raikage.  
**December:** Tobirama dies. Sarutobi Hiruzen appointed as Hokage.
Year 965
     **January:** First Shinobi War Ends.  
**March:** Orochimaru's parents die.  
**June 16th:** Uchiha Kaoru is born.  
**July:** Byakuren falls from Mizukage position. First Kiri Civil War Begins.  
**August 9:** Senju Nawaki is born.  
**June:** Ishikawa steps down. Muu is made second Tsuchikage.
Year 966
     **May:** Totoi goes mssing on a mission to Sky.  
**June 1st:** A (the fourth) is born.  
**August:** Hozuki Gengetsu steps up as the second Mizukage.  
**August 16:** Uchiha Fugaku is born.
Year 967
     **June:** Kagami dies.
Year 968
     **August:** Shamon assassinated. Third Kazekage steps up.
Year 969
     **January 8th:** Hyuuga Hiashi is born to the Main Household of the Hyuuga Clan. Hyuuga Hizashi, Hiashi's twin, is born just seconds later and made a member of the Branch House.  
**July:** First Kiri Civil War Ends.  
**November:** Muu and Gengetsu get into a fight that leads to both of their deaths. Onoki becomes Tsuchikage. Third Mizukage steps up.
Year 970
     **March 3rd:** Rasa is born.
Year 971
     **June 1st:** Uchiha Mikoto is born.
Year 974
     **January 25th:** Namikaze Minato is born.  
**July 10th:** Uzumaki Kushina is born.
Year 975
     **June 7th:** Ringo Ameyuri is born.
Year 977
     **July:** Kaoru goes on a diplomatic mission over the ocean.  
**August 10th:** Senju Nawaki dies. He cannot be saved.

Year 978  


     **February 20th:** Konan is born.  
**February 20th:** Yahiko is born.  
**September 19th:** Nagato is born.  
**November 8th:** Sasori is born.
Year 979
     **October:** Kushina comes to Konoha.
Year 980
     **March:** Uzushio is destroyed.  
**June:** Hatake Murasame is born.  
**August:** Second Shinobi War begins.  
**October:** Uchiha Yuuto is born.
Year 981
     **March 8th:** Ebisu is born.  
**July 4th:** Baki is born.  
**July 17th:** Shiranui Genma is born.  
**October:** Dan dies in battle after making himself a target with his favored jutsu.
Year 982
     **March 8th:** Ebisu is born.  
**March 20th:** Morino Ibiki is born.  
**March 18th:** Hoshigaki Kisame is born.  
**May 21st:** Terumi Mei is born.
Year 984
     **January 1st:** Maito Gai is born.  
**February 10th:** Uchiha Obito is born.  
**August:** Jiraiya takes on Minato as a student but spends a large amount of time at the war front without him.  
**September 15th:** Hatake Kakashi is born.  
**November 15th:** Nohara Rin is born.  
**December:** Nagato's parents are killed by a Konoha shinobi. He kills the shinobi.
Year 985
     **February:** Yuki Ren is born.  
**May:** Chikaze is born in Wind to merchants.  
**June:** Nagato meets Konan and Yahiko.  
**August 15th:** Zabuza Momochi is born.  
**November 25th:** Izumo Kamizuki is born.  
**December 15th:** The twins Fuyuko and Fuyumi born to the Uzumaki and Kaguya clans in Water.
Year 986
     **January** Sasori becomes a genin.  
**March:** Minato is promoted to chunin after defending the village.  
**October 19th:** Uchiha Shisui is born.  
**November:** Orochimaru, Tsunade, and Jiraiya are declared Sannin by Hanzo during the Second Shinobi War.
Year 987
     **January 4th:** Sasori becomes a chunin.  
**January:** Second Shinobi War officially Ends.  
**February:** Orochimaru offers to kill Nagato, Yahiko, and Konan as a mercy kill. Jiraiya declines and they become his students  
**August 10th:** Yamato/Tenzou/Kinoe is born.
Year 988
     **May 26th:** Umino Iruka is born.  
**September:** Kakashi and his age mates enroll in the Konoha Academy.
Year 989
     **March:** Second Kiri Civil War begins.  
**June:** Obito's parents die during a mission that was supposed to be a simple infiltration. He begins living alone under his grandmother's supervision.  
**September:** Sakumo kills himself in the wake of a disastrous mission. Kakashi finds him the next morning.  
**October:** Kakashi graduates from the Konoha Academy as a Genin and is immediately made Minato's apprentice.  
**November:** Jiraiya leaves his Ame students, certain they can take care of themselves.
Year 990
     **January:** Kakashi promoted to Chunin.  
**February:** The third shinobi war starts.  
**April 3rd:** Karatachi Yagura is born.
Year 991
     **March:** Second Kiri Civil War ends in light of the war between nations.  
**September:** Gai graduates from the Konoha Academy as a Genin alongside Genma and Ebisu. They become team Chouza.
Year 992
     **January:** Kisame enrolls in the Kiri Academy, already with the skills to graduate.  
**July:** Kisame undergoes Kiri's graduation battle test, fighting (and killing) a close friend and is immediately claimed as Suikazan Fuguki's apprentice.  
**September:** A single handedly defends Kumo against an incursion of thousands and dies in the process. His son A becomes the fourth Raikage.
Year 993
     **January:** Kisame is promoted to Chunin and inducted into the Cipher Division.  
**February:** Akatsuki is founded with Yahiko as a leader.  
**February 29th:** Yakushi Kabuto is born.  
**March:** Sasori defects and makes himself into a puppet.  
**April:** Kakashi and Gai's Eternal Rivalry begins.  
**April 13:** Inuzuka Hana is born.  
**June 9th:** Uchiha Itachi is born.  
**November:** Obito and Rin graduate from Konoha Academy as Genin. Team Minato is formed.
Year 994
     **January:** Sandaime Kazekage goes missing.  
**January:** Treaty negotiation with Hanzo goes horribly wrong due to Danzo's intervention, and Yahiko commits suicide on his blade. Nagato starts his grudge killing spree.  
**February:** Kisame is promoted to Jounin.  
**February:** Nagato completely decimates any family and supporters of Hanzo, then takes control of the country as a God.  
**March:** Rasa, the Yondaime Kazekage, steps in as a temporary-turned-permanent measure.  
**August 18th:** Uchiha Kaemi is born.  
**October:** Zabuza kills off a class of Academy students, ending the practice of killing in order to graduate Kiri Academy.  
**November 1st:** Chojuro is born.
Year 995
     **January:** Gai and Genma are promoted to Chunin.  
**August 23rd:** Temari is born.  
**October 1st:** Juugo is born.
Year 996
     **January:** A coup in the Land of Snow: largely retainers and the Daimyo's family killed.  
**August:** Orochimaru takes notice of Anko.
Year 997
     **January:** During a mission, Kisame kills both his own and the enemy's squad. Only he and Ibiki walk away from it alive.  
**March 9th:** Tenten is born.  
**July 3rd:** Hyuuga Neji is born.  
**August:** Sasori returns to Suna to assassinate the third Kazekage and turn him into a puppet. Rasa is appointed as Kazekage as an emergency measure.  
**November:** Kakashi is promoted to Jounin. His first mission as Jounin fails and Obito is squished under a big rock. Kakashi gains a Sharingan.  
**November 27th:** Rock Lee is born.  
**December:** Kabuto is found by Konoha Orphanage.
Year 998
     **January 3rd:** Third Shinobi War Ends  
**January 5th:** Minato is declared Yondaime Hokage.  
**January 19th:** Gaara is born. His mother, Karura, dies during childbirth.  
**January 23rd:** Aburame Shino is born.  
**March:** Orochimaru defects from Konoha when his experiments are uncovered. Anko refuses to go with him.  
**March 28th:** Haruno Sakura is born.  
**April:** Rin dies in one of the after war conflicts during a mission.  
**May 1st:** Akimichi Chouji is born.  
**June 20th:** Uzumaki Karin is born.  
**July 7th:** Inuzuka Kiba is born.  
**July 23rd:** Uchiha Sasuke is born.  
**September 22nd:** Nara Shikamaru is born.  
**September 23rd:** Yamanaka Ino is born.  
**October 10th:** Uzumaki Naruto is born. Obito unleashes the Kyuubi on Konoha and a huge swath of the population dies in the process. The Uchiha spend most of the confrontation protecting the civilians. Minato and Kushina die, and Hiruzen takes back up the Hokage position.  
**November:** Yagura takes up the mantle of Jinchuriki.  
**December 27th:** Hyuuga Hinata is born.
Year 999
     **March:** Iruka becomes a Genin apprentice temporarily under Ibiki.  
**June:** Ebisu is promoted to Chunin.  
**August:** Gai is promoted to Jounin.  
**December:** Hiruzen demands that Danzo dismantle ROOT to cannibalize the forces into Konoha's main roster for himself. 
Year 1000
     **January:** Third Mizukage steps down, Yagura steps up as the Fourth Mizukage.  
**March:** Obito, going by 'Madara Uchiha' and yet to take up his Tobi persona, takes control of Yagura and sets him to cleaning up the internal conflict of his village.  
**April:** Juugo's mother goes into a rage-state and kills half the village he lives in before the villagers kill her. Triggers Juugo's first rage-state and he kills the rest.  
**June:** Itachi graduates from the Konoha Academy as a Genin. A team with Iruka, Itachi, and another Genin is formed.
Year 1001
     **January:** Iruka and Itachi lose their other teammate on a mission.  
**April:** Kisame confronts Fuguki about selling Kiri's secrets and codes, kills him, and inherits Samehada. Yagura commends him before Tobi reveals himself to Kisame.  
**November:** Akatsuki starts hiring missing-nin for mercenary work.  
**December 27th:** Neji is branded with the curse seal as a Branch House member of the Hyuuga Clan. Hinata is named Hyuuga Clan Heiress.
Year 1002
     **March:** Kumo has trade treaty re-negotiations with Konoha. A kidnapping plan is thwarted before it can begin, but at a cost, namely Hyuuga Hizashi.
Year 1003
     **January:** Itachi is promoted to Chunin.  
**January:** Iruka is also promoted to Chunin. He begins assistant-teaching at the Konoha Academy.  
**March:** Naruto's class starts being enrolled in the Academy.
Year 1004
     **March:** Tenten and Rock Lee enroll in the Konoha Academy.  
**April:** Iruka goes from an assistant to a full-time teacher at the Konoha Academy.  
**November:** Orochimaru tracks down Juugo and offers him a cure in return for allowing himself to become an experimental test subject.
Year 1005
     **May:** Fuyumi makes a mistake while using the Kaguya name and is killed. His sister flees and switches to the Uzumaki name.
Year 1006
     **July 23rd:** The Uchiha Massacre.  
**August:** Orochimaru creates Otogakure.
Year 1007
     **March:** Karin's parents die and her village burns to the ground. She is the sole survivor and becomes a ward of Kusagakure.  
**April:** Karasu was made by Chikaze.  
**June:** Temari graduates from the Suna Academy as a Genin. She begins diplomacy training under her father.
Year 1009
     **March:** Neji, Tenten, and Rock Lee graduate from the Konoha Academy as a Genin. Team Gai is formed.
Year 1010
    Naruto Manga timeline starts.  
**January:** Gaara graduates from the Suna Academy as a Genin. Team Sand Siblings is formed, led by Baki.  
**March:** Hinata, Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, Shino, Kiba, Chouji, Ino, and Shikamaru graduate from the Konoha Academy as a Genin. Teams Asuma, Kakashi, and Kurenai are formed.  
**May:** Yagura is killed and Mei steps up as the fifth Kazekage.  
**August:** Chunin Exam arc.
Year 1013
    Year Shippuden starts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For the curious, Asura ends up with a total of 23 adopted children (14 boys and 9 girls) and 17 blood children, with 8 spouses that have a lot of overlap, six wives, two husbands. I can admit this might seem a bit ridiculous but it sort of evolved over the course of several RPs and I'm totally not sorry about it.


	2. Ninja Holidays

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aka: Why would shinobi have holidays like _our_ world anyway?

**Winter Reminder**  
February- 13th-15th - Konoha

General Information

A holiday when you give some kind of present, almost always food, to someone you care about to show you’re thinking of them. It’s rarely celebrated with any festivals, but parties are known to be held on one of the three days of the tradition, and candy is by far the most popular gift because of the story behind it.

It’s a widely accepted practice to exchange gifts on these three days, with the progression going as such: The first day is for men to give gifts, the second day is for women to give gifts, and the last day is for couples and families to spend together.

Holiday History  


This holiday began with the Akimichi, and they brought it to Konoha with them when they joined the village. It’s based on a story from early in the clan as to how they first created the pills that they use to fuel their jutsu, and spread quickly to the other villagers as a cheerful event to show affection after other clans witnessed the Akimichi doing it.

Story of the Holiday   


One day, long ago, there was a couple. They were a happy pair and had been wed just the autumn before a long, harsh winter. Hunting had been hard in that time, but the husband, young and strong, had still managed to bring home game for meals no matter how long it took him. Still, his wife, a beautiful woman with deft hands in the kitchen, often worried when he was gone for days.

This time he was gone for nearly a week and she couldn’t wait any longer to go find him. Packing up a thermos with hot soup, she had a pocket full of the candies she’d made in expectation of him coming home. If nothing else, she could offer them as an apology for not having faith in his hunting skills if all was well. This was her thought, and thus with her scarf securely covering her face against the biting wind, she set out to find her man.

And find him she did, after a day of searching, only to be horrified that he’d been trapped in an avalanche while she sat warm at home, and breaths barely left him any longer. His lips were blue and his skin washed out, with only the condensation of his breath reassuring her that half buried or not, he was definitely alive. 

It was probably the dead game tucked around him that saved him, she was sure, and she promised herself that she’d do something special for him as soon as she got him home. First, however, she had to get him home, and she was a small woman who wouldn’t be able to carry him on her own.

First, she tried shaking him, after carefully unburying him, but it did nothing. Next, she tried to lend him the warmth of the soup she’d carried with her, but it was frozen solid inside the thermos. It was useless. Last, and finally, she considered the candies, which she knew tended to invigorate him when she fed them to him in the past, though this was a new recipe... 

So she fed him one of the candies, and it worked! He woke! She was so happy, and they made their way back home though he was understandably chilled through and needed to lean on her heavily, and stayed put until the thaw thereafter.

Suffice to say, they celebrated her excellent instincts and the anniversary of his survival every year after.

* * *

**Wayfarer Festival**  
March 20th-26th - Wave 

General Information   


All about the trade, people are welcomed in for games of skill and a chance to purchase hard to get goods from all over the southern island network.

The events consist of competitions in various weapon skills and flexibility. It is known that shinobi participate and they’re welcome to join. There is also an annual seafood cook-off that tends to draw in people from all over the coast.

Holiday History   


Wave’s spring festival came about as a tribute to getting their shipments back after being cut off by harsh waters every winter. Admittedly, they no longer need to uphold this tradition since the building of their bridge some years before, but it has always been a profitable week. It’s something the small economy of the country still needs. The games came about as a way to lure in both commerce and customers for that commerce.

* * *

**Laden Branch Festival**  
September 20th-27th - Iwa 

General Information   


Iwa tends to have early and long winters, so this week-long festival serves the dual purpose of using up things that can’t be preserved for the winter, both meat and vegetable, as well as for tasting the alcoholic beverages that are ready from the year before.

Feasting and more feasting, with a side of drinking, is the high point of this festival, and it’s the only time Iwa actually welcomes visitors instead of merely tolerating them or rebuffing their presence.

Holiday History   


This started as simply a local tradition where neighbors traded between themselves and family groups made sure to get everything they needed for the winter for equal goods, at some point it exploded into a proper feast, then after that into a festival. The addition of alcoholic beverages came last but is by far the best-appreciated part, and many come to Iwa to try out their fermented goods, as well as take a few bottles home with them.

* * *

**Lantern Sending Festival**  
December 17th-25th - Suna 

General Information   


Every year, Suna takes this week and turns it into a time to honor those they've lost over the course of the year. It's one of the only times during the year, Exams excluded, that Suna really welcomes people from outside the village, feeling that anyone is welcome to revere the dead, so long as they're respectful about it.

Every evening will see people sending lit lanterns out of the village, many of which will have letters to the dead. During the day beforehand there is usually a rather vibrant festival air where local treats can be gotten and games can be played. All of these close up after dark so as not to disgrace those doing a sending, except for the food sellers, and it's not unheard of that child toys can be found in excess during this time as well.

Holiday History   


The holiday has rather interesting beginnings, as once upon a time it was just a local tradition to send up lanterns at funerals, with no big fanfare otherwise being given. Now, this holiday has taken on a day and a purpose, after the story of the man who lost everyone, and was given them back by the lady of reincarnation. Due to this, it's not unheard of that children are conceived during this holiday under the belief that they might become revived loved ones. 

Story of the Holiday   


The story begins with a man, whose name is long forgotten, who had lost everyone to war and sickness. His three children, a son and two daughters, his wife, his brother, his nephew, and even his parents were all lost to him, leaving him with nothing but grief and sadness. It was a terrible year, and he did not know how he could recover from the last of his losses, his four-year-old daughter, the youngest of the children and the longest to survive. He strongly considered joining them.

Instead, he wrote a letter, spilling out his grief and sadness, detailing how much he missed them to every loved one lost in that year and the year before. He knew no one on this plane could read the words he wrote, but that did not mean that they might not reach the next. Thus, that day, when he would have sent up a paper lantern for his daughter's memory, he made it from that long, heart-rending letter and sent that instead.

What he did not expect was for a woman to come to him later that night, wiping his tears and saying nothing at all, who took him into her arms and comforted away his sorrows. By morning she was gone, leaving only the memory of warmth behind. He thought he dreamed her, in his pain, and thought nothing more of it until she came to him, a child in her arms, and smiled a beautiful smile at him as she handed him the child. A boy, one who looked exactly like his dead son. When he looked up she was gone, leaving the child with him, and no matter how he searched, no one had heard of her.

Thus, on the same week as the year before, he sent up another lantern, and he was joyous that she came to him, staying with him until morning as his son slept in his bassinet nearby.

Just as the year before, she returned to him again later in the year, giving him a child. He did not recognize this one at first, for he had not known his dead wife as a child, but when he went digging through pictures he held of his family, that informed him of who his little girl was. Of course, the woman did not stay any more than she had the year before, and he, being too busy with two small children, could not search.

Instead, he focused, sending up no lanterns that year, save one in the spring for a neighbor which did nothing at all. 

It was only when he sent up lanterns that week of winter that she ever came, to bring him a tiny babe in the form of someone once lost to him, and thus he called to her whenever he thought himself ready for more of his family to be returned to him.

At least, until the day when his lost were all with him again, and she no longer answered.

Still, he knew she got his letters, and thereafter sent them all the same so that she would know he did not forget to give her his gratitude for giving him something to live for again.


	3. Zetsu Interference

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter talks about child death.

**Zetsu at Large**

It's widely admitted that Zetsu is, in fact, a complete problem in all corners of the Naruto universe. Some are in the camp that he's to be considered one of Kaguya's sons, others her will made manifest in its entirety. What we can say for sure is that Zetsu caused problems and they were far-reaching. The plant tried to influence things and cause discord everywhere it went for a thousand years, sometimes more successfully than others. The Zetsu we first meet in the series is sort of a final form kind of Zetsu. It's latched onto a slightly idiotic hive mind that it didn't initially have access to, though how quickly it managed to make up for this after the first time the tree was cut off from being able to trap people in dreamlands is impossible to say.

It's very likely it happened relatively quickly. 

All the same, one thing that Zetsu seemed to have figured out quickly was that Hagoromo's children were easier to get at than Hamura's. In my personal timelines, this is because Hamura's daughters fucked off into the wind to do their own thing rather than settling into being proper noble ladies. Meanwhile. Asura and Indra were _right there_. To their misfortune. 

Zetsu didn't work obviously at first, clearly. No, in the beginning, he was just a whisper in the wind, a word in someone's ear and a hint that had someone singing Asura's praises over Indra's when Asura never went looking for praise in the first place. It was someone suggesting tests when the test itself was a trick. It was someone who leaned into Hagoromo's darker, more inhuman tendencies and pointing out all the ways that that was _ideal_. Hamura probably saw the edges of it, the way the lean was going, but what could he do? He had his own catastrophes to deal with and he knew his own failings where their mother had been concerned. It was why he willingly ceded the empire to his brother, after all. It's very likely he didn't realize what it was doing to Hagoromo's children.

Hagoromo, as we know, picked his younger son over his elder. What is never clear is why he didn't make it clear that the boys were in competition. The implication of disappointment is strong, and Indra's expediency was scorned. Asura, dawdling about to teach, yes, but also to take his sweet time doing what he liked, wasn't exactly picking the right path for a solid leadership of an _empire_. Being beloved is never wrong, but doing it at the cost of everything else in your lands but a small fraction is never wise. We never get to see what else Indra did. We only ever get to see the handful of instances that Hagoromo didn't approve of. We only know that Zetsu seized on the rift their father drove between the brothers and made himself at home.

We don't see, immediately, why he picked Indra for this. Indra had the eyes, certainly, but Asura was the one weak to being taken advantage of. Perhaps it was because, ultimately, Indra was brittle while Asura would bend and bend even if it wasn't to his benefit. Regardless, Zetsu handled both the brothers differently, and this carried down their family lines, down the transmigrations from generation to generation. And at some point, Zetsu got less subtle.

* * *

**The Senju**

Everyone knows that Zetsu messed with the Uchiha. They look at Indra, Madara, Obito, even _Sasuke_ and go 'See? That's the family he was messing with.' They forget that the Zetsu army was fueled by Hashirama cells. They forget that Yamato vanished for most of the war because he'd become a prisoner and that at the end of the initial story we really had no idea if he'd survived. Mokuton came from the tree that Kaguya ate the fruit of, most likely, and Zetsu _needed_ it because it was something he couldn't replicate on his own. It could give him things nothing else could, and lend strength to his minions in a way that he likely had waited a very long time for.

The Senju he took a light hand with, but the hand was there. At first, it was whispering to drive the brothers apart, yes. But later, it was other things, fanning on the exuberance of Asura's line and encouraging it in murmurs on the wind, pressing for a more hotheaded nature that sharply rejected thinking ahead, that didn't take the time to _listen_. And this is where it started to get tricky. With emotion came _volume_. They were yellers, they were singers, they were many things that were vibrant, bright, and wildly _alive_. 

Because this suited Zetsu, and kept the tensions between the families sharp, after a few generations he started to actively take a hand. When there was a quiet child that went exploring, he'd pick them off. It was a simple enough thing, at the times he chose, and at first, it was a rarity, a sometimes. It was a child who left the safety of the group. It was the child who was _curious_. It was the child that observed and paid attention to things that others didn't notice. It was any child he'd determined was a sensor, or one he'd noticed might realize something was _off_. And over time, those numbers grew. As the battles between Senju and Uchiha heightened, he found ways to get the Uchiha blamed for the deaths of the more exuberant children, and took out the quiet ones, fueling rumors inside the clan that everyone just _knew_ that quiet children were at risk. That there was something wrong with them. That they were fey and liable to be taken back by nature itself before ever seeing maturity. And these things meant that people tried not to get as attached to the quiet ones, to pay as close of attention to them so that when they vanished in the night on a wander it wouldn't _hurt_ as badly. 

This didn't always work, of course. Tobirama is a wonderful example of this as Hashirama _clung_ to him in his younger years, and given Hashirama had Mokuton as well, it was a risk Zetsu simply wasn't able to take. He got him eventually, later on down the line after the village was formed.

The Senju, after all, were a founding clan of Konoha, they were a large group, they were _equal to the Uchiha in numbers_. And yet, somehow, they all vanished until it was just Tsunade. Some theorize that they married into civilian clans and were absorbed, and I can agree that at least some had this happen. But what of the rest? What happened to all the shinobi? Where did the many clans go?

For the Senju, it circled back to that intensity of emotion. They threw themselves in battles in the first war, and that lost both the first and second Hokage. They threw themselves into the second battle and that lost Nawaki and his entire genin team in one fell fall. But nothing is said about the Senju off-screen. How many Senju went on missions that were just that touch harder than the information said they should have been? How many Senju went out and just never came _back_? This probably contributed to the depth of Tsunade's grief if not only her close family, but the entirety of her extended one, seemed to slowly vanish over the course of her lifetime until one day she looked around and realized _she was the only one left_.

Zetsu had what he needed from Hashirama, by then, and could turn all of his focus to the Uchiha since the Senju had been neutralized.

* * *

**The Uchiha**

Once Zetsu folded Indra enough that he had a foothold, there was no way he was ever going to let _go_. He pressed on the tender spots that followed his fall from Hagoromo's grace, fanned the flames of anger in his children, and slowly, carefully, steered them into habits that would lead to quiet resentment, reading into things that other people don't _notice_ , and nonverbal communication that most outside the clan had little hope of understanding.

He carefully, meticulously, tweaked verbal accounts about how the Sharingan worked any time there seemed to be a misstep in the family doing it properly, and over the generations picked out things that had been written and preserved by previous generations and simply... rid them from the family library. Once, Indra's love of knowledge, his libraries, were vast. There was fuuinjutsu, to say nothing of the many other jutsu created or discovered over the generations that various Uchiha had written down for their children. It was, after all, something that the clan _did_ , recording things for the future, for those that came after to learn and build upon. Zetsu slowly, carefully, got rid of those things that would threaten him. By the time of Konoha, the Uchiha had nothing of sealing but storage scrolls, and thousands of techniques had been snatched from the library, to say nothing of most of the theory. The stone about their eyes as well... tweaked and changed and _wrong_ in the most misleading of ways. 

Of course, this wasn't all Zetsu did. He was never content to simply passively doing things, and as he found some success in manipulating the way of the Senju, so did he start to steer the Uchiha more blatantly. At first, his approach was quiet, a creeping in the night where a particularly fussy baby, one who cried in a way that said they were _aware_ , was turned over in their basket to quietly suffocate in the night. He was careful to start with the loud ones, the ones that were annoying and active and liable to turn in their sleep. But, as he always did, this didn't linger at just that. He started to make the loud children vanish when they'd run off to play, only to turn up savaged like they were caught by an animal. He started to carefully pick off first children who slept alone, quietly suffocating them when they finally dozed off in the night. He found a way to take care of the quiet ones that worried him and get the Senju blamed until they were actually _involved_.

The actions were noticed, of course they were noticed, but the stories that sprang up around them were different than those among the Senju. Instead of distancing themselves from children to be lost the Uchiha learned to _cling_. Between stories of their eyes and the way that deaths happened, the Uchiha turned to pairing off their children, a tradition of giving care from older to younger, to having their children either in the room with a new parent or with their older children always, even with the fussy babies. Fussy babies became a cause for fear and worry because a fussy baby would attract the notice of a night creeper and would have their soul devoured in the night. They learned to hush their youngest until they were strong enough that a creeper wouldn't get them, and stealth became a vital skill in the clan as their ways got more intense, quieter and more focused. 

Zetsu wasn't well pleased by the way the Uchiha banded together, but he still used it, picking out an Uchiha or several in each generation to influence and follow, until finally, he found Madara. Had he chosen someone else, things might have gone differently, but Madara was strong, inventive, and terribly desperate for the world to become a good place. He was everything that Zetsu had been looking for, and was the same age as the Mokuton user that had sprung up in the Senju clan. Thus, he had Madara's older brothers dealt with so that he had more room to work, ripping the boy's protection away without any hesitation. It bound him tighter to his younger brother, and he let it rest, for a time, leaving Izuna's babies, fussy, alone for once, letting the exhaustion wear on the young man until he fell in battle and left Madara vulnerable to his whispers in the most powerful way.

And he moved. He wrapped Madara around his fingers and ripped him from the safety of his clan, going after the ties that kept the Uchiha protectorates safe because they posed their own threats to him and he wouldn't abide them. For a time, that was enough. The Uchiha were protected inside the village with the police, they took a blow when Madara left and the whispers that Zetsu started against them were all too easy, but they settled, the Uchiha proving themselves with their loyalties and ties to one another and the village as a whole.

So over time, Zetsu started to go after those Uchiha who left the village. It was subtle, at first, and they were beacons scattered across the nation int he way their chakra baseline was usually the same steady thrum that synchronized when thrummed. They were understandable losses, and he didn't take all of them, leaving those who were exceptional alone. One day, he acquired Obito and finally knew he had his opportunity by how the boy survived that he'd been able to fall through solid stone and come out the other side, if not whole, then alive. He brought him to Madara, then pressed and prodded to make sure he sent the boy off in the right direction. He ensured that everything was _just so_.

Once all that was settled neatly enough, he poked and prodded and made a test of his control by sending the boy to Konoha, in getting the Uchiha in an untenable position with the most protected of the bijuu. Yes, he couldn't claim it then, that had never been an option, but that wasn't why it had been released. Instead, it was a careful ploy to deal with the Uchiha. The rumors that followed were from his plants, at first, before they caught on and gathered steam. Any time they made headway he whispered in someone's ear to tighten their restrictions, to hem their effectiveness, to cut off their ability to get _money_ until the entire clan was penned and had nowhere to turn. In this, Hiruzen's refusal to see what was in front of him was a boon and was likely why Hiruzen's successors seemed to be so thin on the ground. If someone died because they were dishonored, such as Hatake Sakumo, for instance, then all the better to keep someone in control that Zetsu could use to further his agendas.

Of course the Uchiha didn't handle being penned in well. They weren't designed for that. They thrived on new experiences and stretching their boundaries and they'd been forced into ever smaller roles for generations. Of _course_ the Uchiha wanted to fight back. They had no recourses left. Zetsu had to do nothing at all, at that point, and simply watched as the Uchiha fell, only taking care to locate everyone on the resonance that he'd been tracking them through for so long and dealing with them before they knew they weren't _safe_. Thus the Uchiha fell until there was a negligible number, which he knew would only shrink, and thus be no threat at all so he could leave them be. 

That thinking hardly went well for him, as we all know, but it almost did. It so very nearly did.


End file.
